[1] WEEPING MONK // you're not what I was looking for

33| Where The Heart Is {Part Two}

Ari opens up to Lancelot about something that has been troubling her and they both make a decision regarding their futures in the camp.

"Come with me."

She led him out through the flatter forest into the steeping valley and Lancelot felt like he recognised where he was going, though he had not been here for days. They squeezed between the tunnels of land and wound into the earthen cavern, the familiar tranquil paradise hidden within the forest. The last time that he was within this place he had almost broken his own heart and left her because its what he thought that she wanted. But she had ran to him and held him and asked him to stay.

Lancelot slowed his own steps as Ari walked ahead, looking up at the golden, orange and yellow flowers above sprouting from the vines and roots of the ceiling. He could smell them, their sweetness unlike any other flower that he had ever encountered though he'd never taken much notice or cared before now. He wondered what they might feel like to hold, if they were grown so far out of reach in case anyone taints their beauty or because they should simply never be touched.

Ari made a beeline straight for one of the smaller stones amongst the collection near the corner besides the pool which was still being fed gently by the trickling of water flowing down the rock wall. Lancelot turned his attention and watched at what she was doing, picking his own feet up to make his way over though he was in no particular rush. He was learning to cherish what little time he got to be alone with her, though he doubted that they would be interrupted today.

Ari found the unmarked stone that she was looking for and crouched beside it. With a huff, she heaved and rolled it aside and began to claw at the dirt.

Lancelot came around to her side and looked down between her knees as she crouched. He frowned, not quite understanding what she was doing. There was something wrapped with old cloth buried where the ground had obviously been dug before now in a patch where dirt and not stone covered the earth. Her hands, now muddied, reached in and grabbed the wrapped item. She lifted it to rest over her knees and Lancelot already knew that it was the dagger, but why bury it?